The Orb of Alton
by 2lala
Summary: This is just a story I did for class. It has some Greek mythology. I rated it a little higher just in case because it has some violence. It is about four people trying to save a kingdom


This is just a story I had to do at school but it has Greek Mythology in it. Declaimer: Umm...I don't own the Greek Gods( that would be just plain weird.

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The king chased Elvin out of the throne room. Many sounds of war rang out in the distance.

"You can't do this!" yelled the old king of Alton while Elvin, a magician and a thief, ran away.

Elvin had just stolen the Orb of Youth, which was used to help the city of Alton young. All of the people who lived in Alton had depended on the orb to keep them from dieing but now that the orb was stolen, they would all die very quickly like normal people would. The king was desperate so he sent for his son and two daughters.

He told them," Go and search for Elvin, his house is probably near the city of Hope."

They set off with the son and the older daughter, who were twins, in front and Takoda, the youngest behind. Takoda soon got tired and turned back. She waited with her father for her siblings to return. The king thought back to what had just happened. Elvin had gone to him that he had a problem with something. Then, in an instant, his evil elves had ran into the throne room and attacked everyone in the room, shot cannons outside, and started a war with the villagers who lived near the castle. When the king was distracted, Elvin stole the orb that he had left on the table to replenish everyone's youth.

Now the king is waiting for his son and daughter to hopefully come back. After ten years, the king had to make the choice of letting his daughter Takoda go off to find the orb. He told her that she should choose three friends to go off with her to protect her and help her. Takoda knew just the people for the job.

"Alec, Caitlyn, Andrew, are you guys up to a quest?" Takoda yelled, although she already knew the answer.

"What kind of quest is it?" yelled Alec, the brave and courageous one.

"I hope it isn't too dangerous," said Andrew timidly.

"We need to retrieve the Orb of Youth," Takoda answered.

So the four friends: Alec, the brave one, Andrew, timid but kind, Caitlyn, who was brave but thought ahead, and Takoda herself, who followed her duties. They were convinced about how important this quest was and set off in search of the Orb of Youth. They came across a river and decided to follow it to the City of Hope. While walking, they saw an old woman near the river.

"Please help me across the river, kind people," said the woman." I need to get across to visit my son."

So Alec kindly help carry her across and was rewarded with a confusing riddle. The old woman told him that he would need the words "rock", "tooth", and "water" later but did not reveal why.

Then they asked her what direction the city of Hope was and she showed them.

Upon arriving in the city of Hope, the friends noticed that people were going towards the center of the city. They followed along, curiosity getting the better of them. When they got there, they noticed that it was an enormous marketplace. There were merchants everywhere trying to sell things that looked interesting but were useless. Takoda and Caitlyn decided that they needed food and other supplies for their journey so they went off to find supplies. It wasn't very hard because the marketplace sold everything you could possibly imagine. While the girls were gone, Andrew spotted some chaos near them that was causing trouble. There were two enormous serpents in the middle of the crowd.

"Incandescence!" yelled Andrew, trying to burn the serpents.

The spell managed to work but does not destroy the serpents or scaring them away. Instead, the serpents noticed Alec and him and started to chase them. They kept running without even looking back. They ran into the Forest of Hope. Finally, Alec looked back and saw that the serpents were gone. That was the good part. On the other hand, he noticed that they were lost. They decided to try to find a place to stay for the night. That was when Alec saw a house tucked neatly in between a bunch of trees.

"Come on Andrew, don't be scared," Alec reassured Andrew. "It's going to be okay."

Little did he know how wrong he was. They were welcomed into the house by a strange man whom they felt they should know. Nonetheless, they went in and thanked the man for his hospitality. Andrew started to get suspicious, though, because the man seemed like he had been expecting them. The man, who was really Elvin, showed to rooms that they could never have imagined. Alec's room contained a large bed, some weapons, and a strange hat that did not look like any technology of that world, or at least not that time. He decided to try out some of the weapons and found that they had a very firm grip and were not very heavy. Then he a big risk and decided to try on the strange hat. Many different monsters suddenly surrounded him and so decided this was some kind of virtual reality. He tried to figure out a way to get out and decided on trying to defeat the monsters. He managed to steal one of the monster's weapons by punching it hard in the face. He used it as a sword and knocked down some of the other monsters but they swarmed around him. The last thing he saw was Elvin, walking towards him.

Meanwhile, Andrew had taken a different approach. He found many books on all sorts of things and settled down to read them. He learned some new spells from some of the books and had just found another. This spell was written differently from all the other ones. It was also the only one that was written without a description of what the spell did. Andrew decided to test it out and proceeded to read the spell.

"Detonate!" said Andrew loudly.

Suddenly, his whole room blew up. The ceiling started to shake and dilapidate. Andrew started panicking and tried to run out but a big piece of the ceiling came down on him and crushed him regardless of the protective spell he had just cast.

Andrew woke up in a strange room. He started to look around for a way to get out but the room had no doors or windows at all. There was no way out! He tried not to panic and hoped that Alec would find a way to help him out of this mess.

Meanwhile, Alec was having problems of his own. He was trapped in a strange maze. On a wall, someone had written what looked like "Beware of the monster" desperately. He decided it must be a joke because he felt safe inside the maze. He started to wander around the maze when he heard two terrible sounds. The first was what he recognized as Andrew's spell of help that made sounds in a sequence to let his friends know he was in trouble.

The second sound was much worse. He heard the sound of a monster running towards the spot where Andrew seemed to be. Alec noticed that Andrew was locked inside a room with no openings in it at all so he tried to get the monster to run into the room. He got the monsters attention quickly and quickly dodged it when it charged at him. The monsters ripped open the room and Andrew got out quickly. Andrew and Alec started to find a way out and ran in a random direction.

"Go left, go left!" yelled Alec. "I think I saw some light."

When they went, they found out that it was strange desk with strange items and some writing. Before they could read it, though, the monster came charging towards them.

"That's a Minotaur!" screamed Andrew.

Andrew started casting spells trying to stop it or even kill it. Meanwhile, Alec tried to slash it with his sword. This proved to be useless. Andrew told Alec to distract it for a while so that he could try to get them out. First, Andrew tried his teleportation spell but that did not work. So he decided to try his luck with the words and materials on the table. The words written on the table said _Put together the materials in the right order to set yourself free but if you fail than you will never leave this place alive. _

Andrew tried to remember the old woman's words now because he was sure that they were the answer to the ingredients. He put the ingredients together and sure enough, he and Alec were teleported outside the house. When they got out, they noticed that it was again and decided to try to find the village again. By listening, they were able to hear the noisy sounds that come from marketplaces. They wandered around and eventually found Takoda and Caitlyn.

"Where have you guys been?" asked Takoda demandingly.

"Well we were being chased by a bunch o-," said Alec, trying to explain.

"Never mind, all that matters is that we are all safe and alive," said Caitlyn reassuringly.

They started to discuss where they should go now to get stronger to fight Elvin. Suddenly, in one of the market stalls, there was a commotion. They rushed over towards the crowd and discovered an old man being terrorized by a Cyclops.

"What do we do?" asked Andrew.

"We fight it of course," replied Alec while rushing towards the Cyclops to go for the kill.

He tried to slash the Cyclops but the Cyclops, despite its one eye, dodged it.

"Watch out behind you!" yelled Andrew while trying to prevent the Cyclops from moving.

Alec tried to move out of the way but ended up getting smashed by the Cyclops' hand. Caitlyn tried to shoot the Cyclops' eye and, thanks to her magic bow and arrows, made it. The Cyclops was now blind but still angry and unfortunately, still strong. They decided to try to lead the Cyclops away instead of fighting it so they started to run towards the forest. The Cyclops, though mostly blind, still could smell them and started to follow them. Andrew duplicated their smell so that the Cyclops did not follow them anymore. After that, they ran back into the marketplace to help clean things up.

"It was them!" someone accused. "They set the Cyclops on us."

Everyone in the marketplace somehow linked the Cyclops to the four friends and so they had to get out of town. Before they got out, though, the old man who was terrorized came over to Caitlyn and told them he knew they were not the ones who caused the mess. Afterwards, he told them to meet him by the Hope Pond at midnight.

"What pond, there is no pond here in Hope," said Alec.

"Maybe it's hidden," responded Andrew.

So they searched everywhere for a pond but could not see one anywhere. Andrew, who liked reading about Greek mythology, decided that if the Greek myths were coming true, then they should search for the Narcissus flower to find a pond. The four friends looked around and finally, Caitlyn, with her keen sense of eyesight, saw one. They followed the path of flowers and came upon a pond nestled tightly in the woods. They waited until midnight for the old man to come here.

"I knew you would find this spot," said the old man, emerging from behind a large rock.

"Who are you and what do you want?" inquired Alec.

"I am Tiresias, the prophet. I trusted that you would be able to find me with such a smart and educated person," he replied, pointing to Andrew.

"Wow, good job Andrew," congratulated Takoda.

Tiresias wanted to reward them for saving him from the Cyclops by telling their future. He said that Takoda would discover her true talent soon, Andrew should follow his own heart, Alec should try being more peaceful, and Caitlyn shouldn't trust everyone immediately.

The friends decided to try finding Elvin's house again just so that they could get there faster if they needed to. Along the way, they saw a little dog wandering around.

"_Can you spare some food," _said a strange voice.

"Okay," said Takoda," but where are you."

Her friends were puzzled because it looked like Takoda was talking to herself. She insisted that she had heard a voice begging for food.

"_Down here, down here,"_ insisted the voice.

"It's the dog, I can understand animals," Takoda realized. "Tiresias was right."

She quickly fed the dog. The dog, overjoyed, asked what he could do in return and ended up showing them the way to his owner, whom he thought might help them. When they got to the dog's owner, the man was not willing to help. He explained that his daughter had been taken into the Hope forest and hadn't come back. He said that his condition for helping them was that they have to rescue his daughter first.

So the friends set off into the forest again, unsure of where to search. They heard a faint crying off to their left, but when they got there, all they saw was… a strange apparition. It looked like a ghost but then it suddenly came towards them. It was the man's daughter! She explained that she had been put under some kind of spell that the serpents had put on her after the man had forced her to eat six pomegranates.

"Those pomegranates must be from the Underworld like Hades gave to Persephone, Demeter's daughter," said Andrew, now willing to believe anything.

"But how do we save her?" asked Caitlyn.

No one knew the answer to that question and so they decided to search for the people who had done this. They found a small snake not far away and Takoda tried to talk to it.

"Umm excuse me; did you see any serpents here or a man?"Takoda asked.

The snake did not answer at all and Takoda started to get very frustrated. By talking to the animals around them, Takoda finally concluded that she could only talk to mammals. So, knowing this, she set off to find a mammal in the forest. The first one she found was a rat.

"I don't want to ask a rat!" exclaimed Takoda despite all her friends begging.

_"Ask me what,"_ asked the rat.

"Umm have you seen a man or some serpents go by?" asked Takoda, exhausted from all the peer pressure.

_"Sure, they went that way, those nasty serpents. Can you believe one of them tried to eat me? Me! The great rat!" _said the rat, not even bothering to take a breath in between the sentences.

"Well uh thanks," said Takoda thankfully, while walking towards the direction, leaving the rat babbling about serpents.

They rounded the corner and sure enough, there were the serpents, but the picture was incomplete without the owner. Finally, one came but it was—

"Elvin!" exclaimed Alec. "I should have known you were behind all this. What did you do to that girl?"

Instead of answering, Elvin blasted them all with fire nets. The nets engulfed them all in fire with only the center free. There was also a ledge in the middle where they could be safe from the fire. When Elvin was positive that there was no way for them to escape, he left. All of them tried to get out but failed. Finally, Andrew concluded that the only way out was extinguishing the fire from the outside. That was when Caitlyn saw the rat again.

"Hey, Takoda, it's your friend the rat. You should ask him for help," exclaimed Caitlyn.

"Well he's not exactly my friend but…" replied Takoda.

"Please Takoda!"

"Okay fine," she said, then addressing the rat, she said, "Mr. Rat, could you help us extinguish this fire please."

_"Well, first of all, my name isn't Rat, it's Hector, and does it look like I can extinguish the fire, furthermore,"_ the rat (a.k.a. Hector) jabbered.

"But you can get help from some friends can't you, Hector?" interrupted Takoda.

_"Fine,"_ said Hector the rat, uttering the shortest sentence in his life.

So they waited for Hector to come back while wondering what his friends would be like. Suddenly, they heard a loud rumbling sound in the distance. In the distance, they saw two enormous elephants running towards them.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" screamed the friends in perfect unison.

Instead of trampling them, though, the elephants sprayed water onto the balls of fire and extinguished them. They were free!

"These are your friends?" questioned Alec. "I thought that elephants were scared of mice."

"_They are, but I'm a rat, aren't I. And shouldn't you be thanking me instead of asking more questions. That man who has that weird orb is nicer than you. I think that I'm going to go home now okay,"_ said Hector garrulously.

"Wait, what was that last part you said?" asked Takoda.

"_That I'm going home," _replied Hector.

"No, what did you say before that part?"

"_The weird man, oh him, he had this weird orb and he moved to another house, that's all, but he carried this orb the whole way so it was weird."_

"Come on you guys, it's Elvin, I'm sure," said Alec, "and thank you Hector."

They set off in the direction Hector pointed out to them. On the way, they noticed the ghostly girl following them. They had forgotten all about her. Andrew tried casting a spell to extricate the pomegranates out and finally they came through her stomach like ghosts themselves. The girl, shaken but much better, introduced herself as Florina. She said that she wanted to come with them and help them for the time being as a reward for rescuing her. She said that she had power of the plants. Finally, they got to Elvin's house. When they snuck inside, a hole opened up in the ground but only got Florina and Takoda. Alec, Andrew, and Caitlyn kept on going to face whatever lay ahead of them. They saw three doors at the end of the hallway, each with one of their names on it.

"I guess we are on our own now," said Andrew.

"Oh yeah, we'll see about that!" said Alec as he tried to get through Andrew's door.

A mysterious force prevented him from getting in and shot him towards the wall behind him. He got up and dusted himself; he was all right. After that, the three friends went through their separate doors to face the challenge that lay ahead of them. Tiresias' advice was finally going to come handy for the great task that lay ahead of them.

Meanwhile, in a dungeon down below, Florina and Takoda were not hurt very much by the fall due to Florina making the tiny plant organisms there grow to enormous sizes to act as cushions. The

girls landed deep underground. Suddenly they heard a sound and were aware that they were not alone.

"Hello there, do not be alarmed, I am a centaur," said the voice.

"Uh hi, Mr. Centaur, do you know any way to get out of here?"

asked Takoda.

"Well, little Takoda, if I did, than I wouldn't be here would I?" asked the centaur.

"I guess not but…Hey, how did you know my name?" asked Takoda, now curious.

"I am a centaur; we know many things without being told," said the centaur, "For example, I know that you should talk to that mouse over there for help."

"Excuse me, Mr. Mouse, do you know how to get out of here?" asked Takoda to the mouse in her animal language.

_"Sure, just press the little button that was hidden behind the jar back there,"_ said the mouse.

Before they left, Caitlyn asked the centaur if he also knew why the monsters of Greek Mythology were coming into this world. He said that it was because of another orb that Elvin stole, the Orb of Mythology.

Meanwhile, in his Andrew was wondering what he should do in his test. There had been many people around him, each telling him to go with him or her somewhere. Than he remembered Tiresias' advice

clearly in his head, telling him to follow his own heart. He decided to go straight forward instead of following any of the advice of everyone else. He decided it was pretty easy but than images of his friends appeared and begged him to follow them but he told himself they weren't real and that he needed to go forward. He finally reached the door at the end and went through it to find himself in another room with Caitlyn and Alec.

"So what did you guys go through?" asked Andrew to the others, curious of what tests they had been put up to.

"I had to sit through a teacher's lecture without moving at all," said Alec. "Every time I moved or made any sign that I was impatient, I got shocked and the teacher started the lecture all over again. The lecture was also on the most boring things ever, which made it even harder."

"I had a very interesting test," said Caitlyn.

She had to pick a fork in the road to go on. When she was undecided, a man had come up and told her to take the left fork. Being the trusting person that she is, she listened and ended up going in circles. When she realized this, she backtracked and took the other road. This went on for a long time until she reached the end where there were three forks in the road, with a man in front of each one. Since only one told the truth and the right way to go, she had to figure out the one that told the truth and the two lying ones. The first

man told her to take the middle fork. The second man told her to take the right fork and the third man told her that the left and right forks were the wrong ways. Eventually, using logic, she figure out that the second man had told the truth and the right way was the right way.

In the room that they were all together in, excluding Florina and Takoda, the friends noticed a strange orb in the middle of the room. Another strange thing was what looked like a door carved into the stone wall. Other than these two things, nothing else was out of the ordinary.

"Do you think that orb is the Orb of Youth?" asked Andrew.

"Of course it is, what else would it be," said Alec.

"Well, you can never be too sure," said Caitlyn cautiously.

Suddenly, the orb in the room, which was the Orb of Mythology, started regurgitating many Greek monsters such as Echidna, the Chimera, and Medusa. At the same time, the door shape carved into the wall burst open and Florina and Takoda came out from the dungeon. The last thing that happened was that Elvin, Tanis, and Talon came in along with their dark elves and serpents.

"Oh no," said Takoda. "Now I'll never get back the Orb of Youth to father and save Alton."

"Takoda? Is that you?" asked Talon and Tanis simultaneously.

"Yes! I'm so glad to see both of you. I thought that you had died or been captured."

"No, Elvin bribed us to help him with the safety of you and our

father," said Talon.

"So we had to help him but all this time we were just worried about you and father," said Tanis.

"But now that we are together again, let's finish him off together," said Talon and Tanis together.

They each took on a monster. Andrew was battling against one of the Harpies, Alec was fighting Medusa, Florina was fighting Echidna, Takoda was fighting Stymphilian Birds, and Tanis was fighting against Atlas alongside Talon. When it seemed like they were winning, Elvin threw a big smoke bomb which resulted in utter chaos. When the smoke was cleared, Elvin was gone. Alec, wanting to defeat Elvin personally, tried to run towards the way he went but Cerberus ran towards him causing him to trip. He fell… right at the Orb of Mythology and shattered it. In that instant, all the mythological creatures disappeared.

"Well, one thing is taken care of, but we still need the Orb of Youth from Elvin," said Talon.

They hurry after Elvin's elves and threaten to kill them if they don't tell where Elvin went. Instead of answering directly, the elves use a riddle.

_If you keep looking, then you will never find him,_

_If you give up you will find him._

"What! That doesn't make any sense," said Alec.

The others, instead of complaining tried to analyze what the riddle meant. Finally, Caitlyn figured it out. It meant that Elvin had gone back to Alton to hide, figuring that they wouldn't go back until they found him. They started to travel back to Alton. When they passed the City of Hope, they dropped off Florina at her house. Her father was overjoyed and gave them the orb he was thinking about, the Orb of Freezing. It could be used to freeze someone in his or her tracks.

When they got back to Alton, they quickly found out where Elvin was due to the animals that helped Takoda along the way. They found Elvin inside the treasure room of Alton. Before Elvin could do anything, Andrew froze him with their orb. Than they tied him up and put him in jail so that he could do no more harm to anyone.

When Takoda, Tanis, and Talon got back to see their father, he was overjoyed. The next day, there was a grand feast for everyone to celebrate many things. They celebrated the return of Talon and Tanis, the recovery of the Orb of Youth, and for Takoda, Caitlyn, Alec, and Andrew for recovering the orb.


End file.
